The second full-length effort from Nick Pride & The Pimptones, Rejuiced Phat Shake, is out shortly and damn if they haven’t got more pep in their step since 2011’s Midnight Feast Of Jazz. This one has more vocal tracks on it for a start and in fact more tracks in total – though it’s barely any longer (at forty three minutes) than its predecessor. I think we all know that these sort of things are not just about length, though, so perhaps we should consider breadth too – specifically of styles – which on this is wider than the broadly horns-rich jazz funk of Midnight Feast.
The clear stand-out of the album is the latter-day blue-eyed Motown soul of single Take Care Of My Love featuring Susan Hamilton but you can expect to find this in the company of the Blue Note lope n’ call-outs of Soul Food Strut, the brassy shout-outs of Renegade Brass Band collab Go With It, the big band-ish bluesy sister funk of Second Hand Wife featuring Jess Roberts, the live hip-hop feel of Dubbul O on Non-Stop, the blues funk of Walkin’ Out The Door (featuring Lyndon Anderson), and the closing orchestral ballad featuring Courtney Velecia. Karen Harding vehicle Everything’s Better In The Summertime is a Brand New Heavy’s-ish 90s throwback anthem on which the saxophonist does a pretty good impersonation of Courtney Pine (if that’s your bag) – a trick he repeats on the It’s A Love Thing. The evil bastard. But that’s by the by – there’s plenty on here to like and this has much wider appeal than Midnight Feast to the extent that I’m sensing TV and film psynchs in the offing. Shame this is out after Valentine’s Day really since the soul-jazzy smooch of the Micky Moran Parker featuring Wanna Treat You Right is a shoe-in for heavy V-Day rotation.
(Out 14 February on Legere Recordings)
